crushing clarity
by gaara-nara
Summary: au/high school/fantasy. slight touch of other rookies but focused mainly on the romantic pairing and team gai. [ nejiten ] deadly battle. impossible chance. lessons learned. love… found?
1. Chapter 1

_a gust of wind lightly blew through the area causing pieces of his hair to flutter against his back, having long since lost the hair-tie that normally held it at bay._

 _Hours into battle and there seemed to be no end in sight as the opponents kept coming one after another._

 _as neji's pale eyes skimmed around for which enemy was approaching and would reach him quickest, he unintentionally caught sight of all the bodies lying around, limp and lifeless. his stoic demeanor wavered as he recognized some of the faces but with no time to ponder as the next attacker had pummeled into his range and neji raised his hands, losing himself to focus on his chakra rather than the thick smell of blood in the air._

 _as his opponent and him went back and forth, neji could feel the vein's in his temples bulge as his eyes caught on to the rhythm of every motion made by the man across from him. using the byakugan to the most of it's ability, he figured out the exact-timing between every attack made on him, and neji countered his feet to land in the gentle-fist stance._

 _With the intent of finishing the fight quickly and moving forward to help the others, he rapidly extended his palms to hit and surgically slice through every bit of this challenger's chakra points._

 _as soon as contact had been made though and he lunged forward to take on the next enemy, neji could briefly sense something different altogether happening and had no time to react to what it was._

 _He frowned, pausing in his pursuit and looking around with his byakugan for any traces of an added disturbance, as he realized the very earth beneath his feet was trembling, but this awareness didn't come soon enough._

 _all at once the sky lit up and he was thrown back hard from the impact of some sort of explosion._

 _Moments passed. Seconds? Minutes? Maybe hours… who could know?_

 _When he chanced opening his eyes again, with his ears ringing and hot wet blood leaking from the canals, a very blurry sight of the wreckage surrounding him came into view._

 _No one directly around him seemed to be moving yet and almost all had been thrown back the same way he had._

 _he coughed, noticing a deep pain coming from within as he did so, and heard a choked sob coming from his left._

 _Although most of his senses were battered from the fall, he could tell something was fast approaching him and turned much too quickly to find out, wincing and groaning from the sheer pain incited from that much movement, he fell back into his original position._

 _"_ _neji…"_

 _he could feel liquid splashing down onto his own cheeks._

 _he marveled at how nice the moisture felt and faintly grinned, wondering at the effort it took to do so._

 _"_ _neji…" the voice cracked above him._

 _he finally looked up and found himself face-to-face with tenten, who was grasping his shoulders and shedding tears at a rapid rate. Neji assumed the choked sob and noticeable presence must have all been from her making her way to him._

 _the deep breaths he was having to take were causing his very head to throb. He felt as if he were stuck underwater, close enough to the surface to see what was just above but isolated below where the pressure to let go and float somewhere deep down was so great._

 _He just had to let go… but even as he let these thoughts run across his mind he gazed once again into those brown eyes directly above his._

 _The pain was enough to cause him to not want to think anymore. It held onto him firmly and seemed to refuse letting up even in the slightest._

 _"_ _neji… don't worry. We'll get sakura to patch you up." She spoke out into the dust-scattered air._

 _But his eyes followed hers and they both realized the explosion hadn't seemed to affect most of the other battles going on around them, namely the one with the pink-haired kunoichi._

 _Neji assumed no one else saw him other than tenten who would have of course been looking, as she always did for her teammates, but his eyes found the typical wide-eyed expression of lee as he ran toward them yet stopped when he was close and stared with a look of utter horror at neji's torso._

 _blinking away tears from the relentless pain, the hyuga scooted up slightly, and finally found it's source._

 _A large and rather sharp wood chunk seemed to be protruding out of his mid-section._

 _"_ _lee… lee just get sakura!" tenten's voice pleaded but neji could tell after all the years of being around her, she held some deep anguish within those few words._

 _Neji knew as well as his two teammates that no one could come right now. And what could they do?_

 _They would stay by his side, no matter what the outcome seemed to be, as they had for years._

 _He focused his attention back on tenten and grimaced when he found his own reflection looking back at him in those watery orbs of hers. Now blood seeped from both corners of his mouth and he began to feel as though he might not withstand the torture of it all._

 _Her fingers softly wiped away the strained tears that his eyes had continued to shed against his own will._

 _"_ _just stay awake... Neji we will get help." Her voice trembled now as she continued to struggle with the truth of the situation._

 _"_ _lee… go find someone. Anyone! pLEASE!" she yelled out in distress as she held neji's vision._

 _But their usually energetic teammate stood there frozen._

 _Neji tried to speak, his throat burned to call out and get them to help others rather than him, but as he swallowed he tasted the blood that had pooled inside his mouth and blinked slowly realizing the weight of it all was too much to bear._

 _"_ _neji no…. neji! Neji wake up! Please…."_

 _The last thing he could hear was tenten wailing over his form and then everything went black._

. . . . . .

when he opened his eyes again, he blinked hard a few times, not understanding what could possibly be going on.

he thought maybe he had been trapped in an extreme form of genjutsu but found even that possibility a bit preposterous. what good would an enemy have sending him here? _wherever here was_... he wondered.

yet neji found his hands in front of himself forming a sign and with a quick nod, he clearly spoke out into the room "release." when nothing happened, he calmly tried again and again to no avail, finally allowing his arms to drop down to his sides and onto the bed he found himself lying in.

from the corner of his eye he saw movement and quickly called out, "hey!"

a short woman with a mess of curly hair and a genuinely sweet aura came to the doorway and walked over to the bed he lied on.

"oh good, dear. You are awake. I will let your teacher for your next class know you might be a bit late. You just stay here until you feel absolutely sure you are ready to return."

He stared at her with disbelief at the intimate term she had used and realized she must know him.

 _but how? I have never seen her before…_

his mind continued to reel as he thought of her other statement that involved the words "class" and "teacher" as if he hadn't just been dying.

He breathed in sharply yet noticed no pain, then sat up and stared down at his torso with his mouth half-open.

Nothing was there. Nothing was wrong with him at all.

 _What's going on?_ He thought

"Where am I?" he called out to her back as she had started to leave the room.

He watched her suspiciously as she made a wry face and pointed over to the wall at a plaque.

"Konoha High School, of course." She replied then eyed him a moment longer. "Neji, are you sure you are alright?"

truthfully alright was the farthest thing neji was…


	2. Chapter 2

hi there to those of you who are actually reading this! wow I wasn't expecting reviews or anything yet because this story has only just barely started… and trust me when I say **barely**. this will be a slow burn (or as much as I can bear to make it) and truly a long fic, the longest I have ever attempted to write.

my biggest hope is to always keep the individuals in character and true to themselves, so please let me know how I do on that! otherwise because I forgot to do it earlier: a disclaimer of course… I don't own naruto. (I just waste away writing stories about it and hope with my whole heart to share a tiny bit of why I love certain relationships, romantic or not.)

lastly: I tend to write stories based off of how certain songs inspire new feelings for couples or help me come up with new scenarios. knowing this, please let me know if you wish to know which songs inspired this story and i will post them in with my next chaper update. anyways, that is all for now so enjoy chapter two! and review/comment, please.

. . . . . .

apparently he had stopped breathing and fainted in class.

at least this is what the woman, who actually turned out to be the school's nurse, had told him.

He still didn't know what to do with this information as he continued to sit on the edge of the bed within the nurse's office, hitting the back of his heel lightly on the piece of furniture's long leg.

He had spent the last half hour doing exactly this, which might have struck others who passed by the room as him being tired or confused, but his mind was busy at work trying to make sense of anything that could have caused this to happen.

neji found himself glancing up at the plaque, the nurse had so casually pointed out, a few different times, skimming the words for something useful besides the large "Konoha High School" at the top. he had let his eyes skim over the whole room and every little detail, from the overbearing fluorescent lights in the ceiling, to the little stopper on the wall behind the door, only to come to the conclusion that he wouldn't find any solid information if he stayed in that area.

 _what reasoning could I have to need to leave this room when she now insists that I stay until I am picked up from here and taken home?_ he pondered while staring out the door. _Home… what an odd word to attach to such an unknown place._

He managed to keep a detached look on his face, even as his mind ran through ideas, as the very nurse he wanted to get away from came back through the doorway and seemed to take note that neji's position hadn't changed in the time she had been gone.

"Is everything okay, Neji?" She was staring back at him expectantly now and he racked his brain, trying to quickly come up with a way to get out of the current dilemma.

Suddenly he found himself recalling images of a day with his team and he realized that gai sensei paused an intense training session when rock lee stopped mid-run and shrieked about having to "take care of business" while running off into the woods, therefore leading the older man to radiate with his usual full-face grin and admonish a thumbs up while looking back to neji and tenten to explain how important "maintaining every portion of one's youth" is. As absurd as the situation was, if it made gai so easily give an okay, this could be what saved him.

"I just need to go to the restroom." determination filled his mind, keeping his face from exposing any anxiety over the simple statement.

 _it's not like the statement isn't simple, it just isn't one I normally have to make…_ he realized. The barely noticeable bit of authority he held in the Village had been attached to the last name he carried but this seemed to no longer apply here.

 _At least now it seems like my interactions are more natural for both parties involved too._

"Oh honey, why didn't you just ask? Here, since you have been waiting, use the one right down the hall, otherwise you would have to walk all the way to the one beside the gym." She leaned out of the doorway, as he rose from the bed and made to walk in the opposite direction of where she had been pointing.

"Neji, it is back this way." She stood, clearly confused, as her forehead wrinkled.

With a small glance over his shoulder he explained how he was fine with going to the one next to the gym, desperately hoping in that moment that this was actually the direction of those restrooms. His ears perked up as he heard a shuffle of feet and then the same door he had just left shut quietly, then he faced back ahead and continued on with his pursuit, pleased with this outcome and being able to escape that room.

He walked along the hall, noting how his footsteps echoed in the emptiness of classes being in session.

He dared to slightly peer into an opening on one of the doors he passed and noticed faces of people he didn't exactly know but recognized.

 _Where have I seen them before?_ He thought as he continued to walk ahead and pass another room, holding more faces he recognized.

He was beginning to feel uneasy about all these little uncertainties when he rounded the corner and almost ran face-first into a trophy case.

He steadied himself and took a moment to calm his breathing, glancing around to make sure no one had come from the direction of any of the hallways that were around him.

Once he was convinced he was still alone, he walked around so that he was standing in front of the display case and could see the items inside more clearly.

Rows of pictures, trophies, medals, and plaques adorned every surface available. Neji wasn't too surprised since he was used to achievements being brandished inside the Leaf Village too, just not in the exact same ways. Although, what grabbed his attention were the faces in some of the pictures; without having to look very hard he recognized the pink hair clearly and the thought of the last time he saw her fighting as he lied there bleeding out contaminated his mind.

That searing pain that had caused him to fade away from that life and into… _well wherever this is_.

His fingers idly wandered to his torso and he lightly rubbed, just as surprised as the first time, that they felt no sensation of sharp wood nor did they come up with blood on them. As he stared at the fingers, lost in thought, he was pulled back into reality when his eyes focused in on the picture behind his hand and found a pair of rather bushy eyebrows that belonged to the body standing beside sakura and the rest of the kickboxing team.

as he leaned closer and squinted, he could tell not only was rock lee present in the picture but on another shelf he found a trophy that very visibly had "naruto uzumaki" on the front and medals hanging around, showing off names of people he knew from his days in the academy and through the experience of the chūnin exams.

 _it appears all of team 7, 8, and 10 are present too… almost all of the rookies, hm._ His eyes skimmed right over the buns present in the girl's basketball team picture as he tried to absorb everything else but something about the lighting in the hallway made him take a second look and connect his own line of vision with those brown eyes, dry instead of watery like last time, and crinkled a bit on the edges where a grin was placed on her face. he didn't catch the small smirk making it's way on his own face as he took in the long shorts, baggy top, and aggressive stance she stood in within the picture.

 _Ready to fight for a win, as always_ … he mused.

Having been so focused in on the items in front of him, neji didn't catch what his byakugan would have had he been back in the world in which he wasn't sure he even existed anymore. a hand slapped down on his shoulder and before he could jump too much, a boisterous voice reverberated through the air behind him.

"Neji! Strolling down memory lane are we?"

although he could recognize that voice anywhere, the teenage boy turned around to find his sensei shining joy from every crevice of his being, starting with the massive grin that seemed to stretch across his entire face.

"Gai sensei." He slowly allowed himself to remark, wondering if that still applied here. An answer was quickly given when he followed Gai's longing gaze fixated on a section in the trophy case that showed what looked to be a candid shot from the school's soccer team. It took only a few moments for neji to find long dark strands blown back from the goalie's neck, to realize it was himself, as he saved a shot from going in and the rest of the team jumped with all enthusiasm into the air. An almost explosive gai was found on the side of the field, beet red from yelling out in delight at what seemed to be the difference in their school winning or losing said game.

"Ah yes, a time blossoming with the power of youth! Now you are running, running headlong into the future." Another hard clap of the shoulder from the teacher to the student, "Is the uncertainty of the future what has you worried? Or will you miss your ole coach that much?"

"I don't understand what you mean." Neji responded, for the first time being completely honest in his statement.

"I saw you in the nurse's office and asked her what happened when I was out making my rounds." Gai's face scrunched up in confusion drawing those brows rather close together, "You normally are the one I don't have to worry about. I know prom, graduation, and your last summer home before college has come up so soon but your passion will guide you! Don't hesitate or fret, Neji!" the man's voice had, as usual, only managed to get louder and more persistent throughout his little speech.

A few moments before, the hyuga would have been worried about someone hearing them and coming out into the hallway but not now.

the boy stood motionless for a bit soaking in all the new details that had presented itself to him through the ramblings of his over-encouraging teacher.

 _Graduation, yeah we had those… I am almost certain college is an extension of the education system to further one's knowledge and future success within whichever field they choose, yeah… but prom? Hm. I will have to do more observing or communicating to figure that one out._ He sighed and looked back up to the man standing beside him.

"I am just tired." He grimaced, realizing how true that statement was.

"i would imagine! best game of the whole soccer season and what a way to finish your senior year off! such drive, such ambition, s-…" Gai's eyes, normally ablaze with determination, began to water and Neji recognized this from the many times his other teammate, a spitting image of their sensei just younger, would join in the dramatic show of emotion.

"Yeah, well…" the younger of the two awkwardly shifted himself to face back the way he came.

"ah yes! I will walk you back! I need to speak with him anyways." Gai strolled ahead of Neji, with a noticeable bounce to his every step, once again going from one extreme to another, nothing new for the boy who had learned to deal with the constant outbursts throughout the years but enough to distract him from the mention of someone else.

As they made their way back down the hallway and toward the now familiar front office that held the room he had been confined to for what felt like forever, he could see the curly head of hair that could only belong to the nurse.

He slowed his pace and then came to a halt as he studied the body that was standing and talking with the nurse, unsure of why his stomach immediately clenched. He couldn't look away from the person only a few feet ahead of him and it wasn't to worry, since they seemed deep in conversation anyways, but a lively greeting from his coach's mouth caused his senses to sharpen, only in time for his breathing to hitch in his throat.

The man turned slowly and gave a slight nod in acknowledgement before his eyes met with Neji's.

It was only then that the boy realized the name Gai had announced was none other than Hizashi Hyuga.

Neji was standing face-to-face with his father he had lost so long ago.


End file.
